Spring Fling Winners!

Hey Neighbors! Thanks for participating in our Busy Chicks Spring Fling Blog Hop last week!  As you may recall, we had some awesome prizes being offered up by our participating blogs, including one from yours truly!  So without any further adieu, please congratulate 

Vicki Townley

Vicki is the winner of a $150 voucher towards scrapbooking and group fees on any Crafty Neighbor Scrapbooking Cruise!  Vicki, please contact me to claim your prize!  You will find my email address on my website here.

If you would like to see the entire list of winners, please revisit all of our participating blogs or "Like" the Busy Chicks networking group on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Busychicks

Now, if you visited my blog yesterday, you know that I've started in on a new hop this month, hosted by The Craft Squad.  This month’s theme is “Brought to You by the Color Green” and you'll see several different takes on that theme as we hop through the participating blogs.  If you want to start at the beginning, please visit Stamp-Patty at http://www.stamppattys.com.  Feel free to comment on what you see!  We'd love to hear from you!

As promised, in celebration of my March birthday boys, here is a somewhat masculine birthday card.  I made this one a while back for a family friend.  The balloon was a Quickutz die cut.  I used some scrap paper left over from a page layout, and the distressed edging on the sentiment was from some roll-on rub-ons I bought a long time ago and never use.  I think what makes this card more masculine is the colors and the simplicity.  By using darker, muted colors, it has a more quiet and subdued feel.  The balloon gives it a little celebratory kick, but since that's all there is, it's not over the top or loud.  This same card can be "quietly feminine" by using soft pastels or other muted colors.

If you're wondering why I've done so many projects using old supplies lately, you should know that I'm a "waste-not-want-not" kind of gal.  I've been on a kick lately to try and use all this stuff I've bought.  I can't just keep buying new stuff without doing something with the old.  So with each project, I'm trying to incorporate at least one thing that I've had for a while, and eventually it will all get used up.  It's become especially apparent that I need to do this as I've gone through this renovation of my work room.  I know a lot of crafters would just toss this old stuff or put it in a garage sale, but I spent good money on it, so I need to use it, right?  

That's all for today.  Don't forget to jump into The Craft Squad blog hop!  The beginning is on Stamp-Patty's page at http://www.stamppattys.com.

Sunday News

This is just going to be a very short blog entry today. I just can't keep my eyes open because I just got in last night from a week in Cancun inspecting 7 different Palace Resorts.  Oh my!  I am so ready to go back there, and I'm actually thinking about trying to put together a scrapbooking event there for next year.  I just wanted to pass on some little tidbits of information before I go fall out and take a long nap!

As you may have noticed, we have not held our annual Think Pink (aka Pam's Pals) event this year.  I'm sorry, but there was no availability at our usual location and it has also been a very busy fall so far this year.  I am working on putting something together for January, so I will keep you posted!

Events that are coming up in the next few months are:

• Weekly Mother's Day Out crops most Thursdays 
• 3rd Wednesday Stamp Club
• 6th Annual Scrapbooking Cruise

Information about these and other events can be found on our Meetup.com website.

Here on the blog, we'll be having a few events, too.  For October, look for two different blog hops.  We'll be participating in our monthly Team LinkedIn blog hop and also the All Treats, No Tricks blog hop with Dallas/Fort Worth area stores and retreats.  Be sure to check out all the blogs for a chance to win a prize on each one.

And speaking of winning prizes, our September blog hop winner is Cheryl Albee.  Cheryl is the winner of a $25+ bag of embellishments.  Cheryl, you have 1 week to contact us to claim your prize!

Last, but not least, I want to talk a little more about Cancun.  As you may know, I am a travel agent, and I host scrapbooking cruises.  Sometimes these cruises are easy to put together, and sometimes they just don't work.  For instance, our 2013 cruise has undergone many changes.  We started out with a September departure on Carnival Cruise Line, and now we are on a Royal Caribbean cruise departing in December.  It all comes down to logistics -- finding the right dates, going to the right destination, at the right price with a conference room or other space available for our use 24/7.  I've already run into some difficulties trying to set up next year's cruise, and it looks like we may have to opt for a higher-priced cruise in order to get a date that will work for us.  So that leads me to another question...how do you feel about doing a land-based premium retreat?  I'm talking about a vacation destination get-away to some awesome place where you can choose to scrapbook or just soak up some sun.  I have several destinations in mind, but they would all require flying, which would limit the amount of scrapbooking equipment you could bring along.  What do you think?  Comment below to share your thoughts on going to a destination retreat, and be sure to find us on facebook and take our poll on this subject.  You never know...we might have a great destination that's just right for you.